Thursday, August 5, 2010

Contour Energy Systems Says it has cracked the code for Producing Batteries with Fluorine that will outdo Lithium.

I'm not sure how Evo Morales is going to take this news.
From Greentech:

If Contour Energy Systems is right, you might die well before your heart defibrillator gives out.
Contour -- founded by a blue-ribbon group of chemistry and battery scientists -- has come up with a way to make high-power, long-lasting batteries with fluorine ions instead of lithium.

The batteries will initially be targeted at the military and medical device industry, but, if successful, they potentially could wind up in a wide variety of applications. The company recently cut the ribbon on an initial factory in Azuza, California. The first batteries come out later this year.
"Why do you change batteries in a smoke detector? Because a battery
wasn't previously available that would last 20 years," says Maurice Gunderson, a partner at CMEA, which invested in the company. "Why is a blender not cordless? Because batteries weren't good enough."

In terms of energy density, fluorine batteries have the potential to be eight times better than lithium batteries, but he adds that a two- to three-fold boost in performance is more realistic. The batteries will also have better power performance, i.e., they will be able to deliver more power on demand.

Fluorine batteries actually exist now -- you can buy them in drugstores for cameras -- but they aren't particularly efficient. These currently available batteries employ a carbon monofluoride structure. That is, a battery component will have one fluorine for every carbon. Contour has developed a process to vary the basic formula that will allow a battery component to contain more, or even fewer, fluorine atoms to carbon atoms, depending on the desired result and application.

The company was originally called CFX Battery, with the C standing for carbon, the F for fluorine and the X for the ratio that can vary.

Like the lithium family of batteries, which includes lithium cobalt, lithium manganese and other combinations, the exact recipe used for each battery and component will vary. The company may come out with batteries where the secret sauce lies in the anode or the cathode or both. The first batteries -- for military applications -- will be coin batteries that are primary, i.e. non-chargeable, power sources....MORE

No one said there was a shortage. The question is geopolitical and strategic. It is the same situation with lithium. There isn't a shortage in the foreseeable future. In Li, The potential problem arises from the fact that Evo Morales controls half the world's known reserves of lithium. The calculus of signing agreements with him is closer to that required when dealing with Hugo Chavez than that required when dealing with the Japanese....

Here's Evo's pal Hugo:

Here are the tres amigos performing on open mike night (Fidel is so tone-deaf):